


Upcourse

by fleece



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternia, Developing Friendships, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-31
Updated: 2016-05-31
Packaged: 2018-07-11 06:43:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7034128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fleece/pseuds/fleece
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Feferi swims inland. Aradia becomes excited.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Upcourse

Feferi emerged from the river depths, face first, slowly, so her horns wouldn't buzz from a sudden temperature change. A froth of algae and organic matter surged around her. She was tempted to cry a little, not because she was a little wiggler who couldn't handle the interior, but because it had been some hours and she missed the salt water already.

Blubberbeasts do this for fun, Feferi thought to herself. This can be fun!

The night had grown long and warm, bright despite the absence of both moons. Trees reached out, their crowns textured like coral. They would be small compared to the crags in the abyss. They were small even compared to the river, which strayed from their grasp, and lounged widely in the plain. Feferi floated a little higher to see that the landscape beyond the waters' fringe was covered in grass and shrubs, like to seaweed as the hair on her arm was to the hair on her head. The blades and leaves rippled.

Her eyes expanded suddenly- she felt dizzy, not expecting the involuntary shift. Her eyes hyperfocused on plant movement- there, some was shining a little more. Something person-sized was darting from shrub to shrub like a cautious minnow.

She reached, not calling her mom, just wanting to touch the abyssal hold in her mind for comfort. She heard a bit of song, felt as if she was under the ocean or on a moon, in a star, until the pressure became too great and she had to withdraw. She put her face underwater to glub a little, feeling secure again, and then made long strokes to swim toward the bank.

Feferi saw a flash of yellow, brighter than the cool tones of the plant life. A troll. She kicked out with fervor, scrambled up past the gravel of the shallow water onto a little beach where the brambles were less thick, and lit her shoulders.

Something came snapping out of cover like a lightning bolt. Feferi, in her surprise, was caught in the grip of a rope like her mom's finest whiskers, then jerked to the ground face first, scratching her goggles in the soil and getting dust in her gills.

"What are you doing?" the other troll said.

"What a weapon," Feferi laughed, turning her face to the side and spitting out grit from behind her fangs. The ground was warm on her body, and she couldn't see, and she didn't want to break what was probably this poor thing's only defense.

"What lights were those?" they asked. There wasn't any slack in their line. I got fished up, Feferi thought. Usually she caught fish with sharp twists of her body, not a string, and playing Anemones with Eridan they always grappled claw to claw. She was enjoying the novelty of distance.

"My signal eyes," she answered. "Could you please let me go? My name's Feferi. You're bigger than me, I think."

It sounded like the troll was fighting their way out of the bushes. Their movements before had been like a wind. Maybe Feferi had embarrassed them—she was overpolite. 

"I'm Aradia," the troll said finally, beginning to unwind the rope from around her. "I thought you might have psionics, in which case restraining you was a good precaution! But it looks like you're a water dweller- are any of you psychic? Schoolfeeding never said, but schoolfeeding is next to useless."

Feferi laughed. She wiped off her goggles, and took a good look at the troll who'd dragged her down.

Aradia had a wild mist of densely coiled hair bobbing around her face and ratty clothes, like Feferi's would underwater. Her horns were a loose curl around her open face, her—it was a whip! so old-fashioned!—whip now looped up into her sure-gripped hand. She was biggger than Feferi, as she had thought, and steamed gently where Feferi's cold skin was beading water from the air. 

"You look nice," she ended up saying, maybe too frank this time. When was the last time she talked to someone besides her moirail like a normal troll being? "I live in the sea the river swims to."

Aradia blinked. "A seatroll?" she repeated, as Feferi stretched back over to the water and started rinsing the earth off of her face and body.

"Whaaaale, yeah," Feferi said, lengthening the pun with tenderness. "I mean, duh." She brought her cupped hand filled with water to submerge her gills and let the dirt filter out. "And obviously you're a landtroll, so we've sorted that out now."

"But there's incredible cultural reserves in the ocean!" Aradia yelled, rolling out her whip into a thunderous clap, her fangs a beacon, hair trembling. "You'd be able to help me find structures and artifacts contemporary to the ruins I've uncovered on the plains here—I have to show you what to look for!"

Feferi laughed again, dissolving a little cold puff of her breath into the night. "Friends already?" she asked. Too forward?

"Yes!" Aradia said, coiling up her whip and stowing it into her shirt before making a weird stance, like Eridan crouching low while sitting on his dad. "Come on," she said, impatient, flapping her hands at Feferi. "Climb on. I'll fly you home and show you all my notes and pictures, and then you can help me collect more data!"

Feferi stood there for a bit, absently wringing out her hair and skirts, while Aradia bounced on her feet, her eyes large, expecting. "Well, I've already gone from salt to fresh, so continental land must be at LEAST as exciting!" Feferi said. Then she stepped over, and laughed at the way Aradia's face lit up with victory. She looped her arms around Aradia's shoulders and awkwardly nestled into the huge puff of her hair. Aradia's arms, supporting her thighs, almost seared her. Hot blood suits her, Feferi thought, resting her cheek on one of Aradia's horns.

"Ooh, you're colder than the dark season," Aradia said, hefting Feferi up a couple of times, dipping her knees experimentally. "And heavy!"

"Wait, did you say fly?" Feferi asked, realizing late.

"How else am I going to get from place to place before dawn? You ready?"

Feferi let out a glub! and said, "Whale, okay, shore!"

**Author's Note:**

> My roommate saw sea lions in the American River, and Odditycollector answered a meme ask of mine on tumblr about pairing Aradia and Feferi ("I would find a point of conflict between them that is not “social status” or “sollux timeshare” and build up from there."), and thus this little fic baby was born in my rush to qualify for the Ladystuck remix. Eek!


End file.
